OVERLORD, D-DAY
OPERATION NEPTUNE, June 6, 1944
By Clayton Marks, RCNVR and Combined Operations
Troops of Canadian 3rd Division, leaving their ship with bicycles, at
Juno beach along the coast of Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Photo credit - Gilbert Milne, RCN photographer
Introduction - The following story (presented here in six parts) can be found in Combined Operations by Clayton Marks of London, Ontario. The book was printed in 1993 (approx.), is extremely difficult to find, but is being reprinted by a London team. I present a short summary of Mr. Mark's 23-page-long account on this site.
Troops and landing craft were held back for other reasons. The hope that Cherbourg's valuable harbour would be wrestled from the Germans, in order to land troops easily and in great volume, slowed the process of moving men to Normandy's beaches. But German defenses held and their aircraft mined the approaches to Baie de la Seine again and more sweeping was required. These things were not explained to landing craft crews and the waiting chafed.
It is reported that "ferry work, apart from enemy action, was far from easy." Any troop transport across "the rough Channel was always risky" and beach obstacles and mines - augmented by the wrecks of the craft - still endangered the approach to the beaches. Bombing and shelling had left great craters on beaches, which formed "hidden pools eight and ten feet deep". Charging craft could still be smashed and landing troops drowned.
At dusk on June 10th, five were drowned when LCI 276 beached in the Omaha area on a quickly rising tide. As sailors, clinging to a lead line, made their way ashore through shoulder high water "they began to slip among a nest of bogged-down, half- submerged vehicles". Burdened with heavy gear in a rising surf, men became panicky and let go of the hand ropes. "Struggling men floundered off into water", and before help arrived, five were lost.
Some of the hardest worked craft along the littered beaches were manned by Canadian crewmen, members of the 260th and 264th Flotillas. Their flat-bottomed landing craft were up to the strenuous work of transporting troops and all the material of war but suffered much damage as they dealt with pounding surf and working in proximity to much larger transports. "Propellers were sheared off, anchors carried away, and great gashes knocked in the hulls; and the steady process of attrition soon got ahead of the devoted repair men." Some craft, too badly damaged, were forced to return to England, but not before they experienced a terrible storm in the channel ("which blew up on the night of Monday June 19th").
For three days the gale threatened Operation Neptune. "The artificial harbour in the American sector at St. Laurent was almost entirely carried away. The British harbour at Arromanches was battered and broken" but later repaired. Other smaller shelters were beaten mercilessly and the craft that "suffered most were the landing craft."
LCI(L) 305 saw a section of the St. Laurent breakwater tear loose and was forced to take evasive action. She headed for the beach to anchor, "but within an hour.... she was tossing in the crowded harbour again." 305 was helpless against the storm, was lifted toward the beach and faced total destruction, but with engines at full power, "she swerved and bumped her way out through a mass of other vessels to a patch of clear water," and was saved, thanks to an emergency anchor, "for the next eleven hours." However, by mid-afternoon the next day, LCI(L) 305 was again battling to remain afloat. All manner of anchor cables broke, and "the zigzagging craft, terribly beaten by the wind and sea" was forced upon an obstacle in the water, severely damaged, and scrambled for safety, odds against survival. Finally, however, "around noon of the 22nd", she again risked a channel crossing and at midnight, in Calshot England, "her men (were) enjoying the first hot food and looking forward to the first dry sleep they had had in eighty-two hours."
Other crafts also experienced adventures of the same "melodramatic lengths" due to the horrendous June gale and barely managed "battered and holed, (to labour) across the Channel to Southampton."
The last paragraph of Clayton Marks' significant 23-page account follows:
In spite of similar trials, distributed over all ships in the Channel or at the Normandy anchorages, Neptune weathered the storm. With clearing weather during the latter part of June, the operations of the landing craft began to be stepped up. Craft held in reserve for a landing in the Channel Islands were released to the general pool as the possibility of that landing grew more remote. Canadian craft were to ferry over about thirteen thousand troops in July, and another seven thousand in August, before they were dispersed and their crews returned to general service.
Please link to Story: Overlord - Operation Neptune, D-Day - Part 5
OPERATION NEPTUNE, June 6, 1944 - Part 6
Troops and landing craft were held back for other reasons. The hope that Cherbourg's valuable harbour would be wrestled from the Germans, in order to land troops easily and in great volume, slowed the process of moving men to Normandy's beaches. But German defenses held and their aircraft mined the approaches to Baie de la Seine again and more sweeping was required. These things were not explained to landing craft crews and the waiting chafed.
As well, landing craft flotillas were drawn from a pool as required and "some were worked to exhaustion" while others were not. So, "voyages were made as required to whatever beaches or sectors had need of troops" and though a myriad of personnel were moved across the channel (e.g., British infantry, marines, pioneers, air force ground detachments, infantrymen, artillerymen, sections of medical and engineering units of the Canadian Army, American medical detachments, parties of nursing sisters, pay corps men, stevedores, refrigeration companies, balloon units, and many others) not all landing craft crews enjoyed gainful employment.
Though the voyages that did occur involved crossing heavily mined waters and the danger of facing enemy attack, the Canadians generally got off lightly. LCI(L)s in action reported damage caused by enemy bombs and mines and pre-dawn brushes with the Luftwaffe and "a shelling from enemy batteries later in the same day". All crews emerged without casualties.
It is reported that "ferry work, apart from enemy action, was far from easy." Any troop transport across "the rough Channel was always risky" and beach obstacles and mines - augmented by the wrecks of the craft - still endangered the approach to the beaches. Bombing and shelling had left great craters on beaches, which formed "hidden pools eight and ten feet deep". Charging craft could still be smashed and landing troops drowned.
At dusk on June 10th, five were drowned when LCI 276 beached in the Omaha area on a quickly rising tide. As sailors, clinging to a lead line, made their way ashore through shoulder high water "they began to slip among a nest of bogged-down, half- submerged vehicles". Burdened with heavy gear in a rising surf, men became panicky and let go of the hand ropes. "Struggling men floundered off into water", and before help arrived, five were lost.
Some of the hardest worked craft along the littered beaches were manned by Canadian crewmen, members of the 260th and 264th Flotillas. Their flat-bottomed landing craft were up to the strenuous work of transporting troops and all the material of war but suffered much damage as they dealt with pounding surf and working in proximity to much larger transports. "Propellers were sheared off, anchors carried away, and great gashes knocked in the hulls; and the steady process of attrition soon got ahead of the devoted repair men." Some craft, too badly damaged, were forced to return to England, but not before they experienced a terrible storm in the channel ("which blew up on the night of Monday June 19th").
For three days the gale threatened Operation Neptune. "The artificial harbour in the American sector at St. Laurent was almost entirely carried away. The British harbour at Arromanches was battered and broken" but later repaired. Other smaller shelters were beaten mercilessly and the craft that "suffered most were the landing craft."
LCI(L) 305 saw a section of the St. Laurent breakwater tear loose and was forced to take evasive action. She headed for the beach to anchor, "but within an hour.... she was tossing in the crowded harbour again." 305 was helpless against the storm, was lifted toward the beach and faced total destruction, but with engines at full power, "she swerved and bumped her way out through a mass of other vessels to a patch of clear water," and was saved, thanks to an emergency anchor, "for the next eleven hours." However, by mid-afternoon the next day, LCI(L) 305 was again battling to remain afloat. All manner of anchor cables broke, and "the zigzagging craft, terribly beaten by the wind and sea" was forced upon an obstacle in the water, severely damaged, and scrambled for safety, odds against survival. Finally, however, "around noon of the 22nd", she again risked a channel crossing and at midnight, in Calshot England, "her men (were) enjoying the first hot food and looking forward to the first dry sleep they had had in eighty-two hours."
Other crafts also experienced adventures of the same "melodramatic lengths" due to the horrendous June gale and barely managed "battered and holed, (to labour) across the Channel to Southampton."
The last paragraph of Clayton Marks' significant 23-page account follows:
In spite of similar trials, distributed over all ships in the Channel or at the Normandy anchorages, Neptune weathered the storm. With clearing weather during the latter part of June, the operations of the landing craft began to be stepped up. Craft held in reserve for a landing in the Channel Islands were released to the general pool as the possibility of that landing grew more remote. Canadian craft were to ferry over about thirteen thousand troops in July, and another seven thousand in August, before they were dispersed and their crews returned to general service.
Photo credit - From The Canadians at War, 1939/45
No comments:
Post a Comment